Whoosh goes Asafa
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By Mike Hurst
February 21, 2008 12:00am
JAMAICAN track coach Stephen Francis says he’s glad his superstar sprinter Asafa Powell was beaten for the world 100m title last year.
As Powell indicated he was keen to start at the Melbourne Grand Prix tonight, Francis said he believed the shock of losing would pave the way for his world record holder to win at the Beijing Olympics in August.
“At the time I thought if Asafa goes there (Osaka) and wins, he’ll lose at the Olympics because he would believe there are no consequences to the way he prepared (for the world championships),” Francis told The Daily Telegraph.
Powell last night rated himself a 90 per cent likelihood of racing in Melbourne tonight after training pain-free yesterday. He said he would practise his starts an hour before tonight’s meet and if he could come out of a crouch without ripping open the wound that required four stitches in his left knee, he would definitely compete.
The word Asafa means “rising to the occasion” in the Ghanaian language, but with the exception of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games at which he won the 100m, Powell has so far failed to live up to his name.
Part of this is the nature of his environment and the way his community has nurtured him into believing he is one of God’s chosen golden boys.
Powell’s parents, the Reverends William and Cislyn Powell, are both pastors in the Church of God in the rural St Catherine area of Jamaica.
The youngest of six brothers, Asafa was brought up as a fundamentalist Christian. Some critics believe that while Asafa benefits from having a strong faith in his own ability, he has been hindered by the belief that all things are a matter of destiny, that outcomes are predetermined.
“Asafa had an air of invincibility about him in his own mind,” Francis said, referring to the lead-up to the 2007 world championships in Osaka where the world’s fastest man finished third behind American Tyson Gay and the Bahamas’ Derrick Atkins.
“You have to understand that in Jamaica most of the poor folk are fundamentalist Christians. I mean, of the most intense kind. They believe the Bible very literally. They bring their children up in the same way,” Francis said. "Hence they believe that if God is going to bless you there is nothing that man or you can do to ‘unbless’ you.
"One of the characteristics of that is that Asafa believed that what he was doing was something that God gave him, some gift which he really didn’t have much to do with. And probably neither did the coach.
“I think what happened in Osaka brought Asafa back to reality and he saw things from a different perspective.”
Powell regrouped only a fortnight later in Rieti, Italy, where he wrecked the world 100m record with a blistering run of 9.74sec in his heat, backed up by a 9.78 in windless conditions. “After the race in Rieti he began to see what this sport was really all about,” Francis said.
``I don’t subscribe to the idea that Asafa has a mental block, whatever that is.
``His problem is transferring his running on the first day of competition to the second.
``That has been the problem in all the competitions in which he has competed, 2002 Commonwealth Games [failed to reach the final], the 2004 Olympics in Athens [fifth] and the world championships last year.
``I went into Osaka knowing that he couldn’t win. But I almost changed my mind after the first day, after the way he ran in the second round. I said to myself, `this guy is going to make a liar out of me.’
``He didn’t do enough work. I told his sponsor `don’t expect Asafa to win because Asafa just has not done enough due to the injuries and his attitude to training and his racing schedule and so on. It was just not there’.
``But after the first day I thought `hold on there, this guy is not as I thought’. But it was not to be.’’
Francis expressed his fears for Powell’s Beijing prospects even before the Osaka reality check which he could see coming and which he has now embraced.
``Usually it takes something like desperation before they will listen. I find it easier to get through to the athletes after they lose.’’
Hence we also saw a change overnight in Powell’s sprinting action, a change which manifested in that pair of 9.7s in Rieti.
People talk about triple extension when sprinting. A straightening of the hip, knee and ankle joints concurrently in the full extension phase of the stride cycle. But Powell appears not to do that. His action is almost a fast shuffle, like that you see from sprint hurdlers between the barriers.
Francis explained: "One of the things that I observe is that every human action whether it is a swinging bat or racquet, a swimming action - crawl or butterfly - or sprinting action. They are unique to an individual.
"When you get very good it is not possible to take Michael Jordan’s jump shot - no matter if it is a little bit off what you think it should be - change it, and expect Michael Jordan to be the same as he was before.
"I look at coaching as trying to get the most good out of the plan that you have. There are some issues which if you managed to change them there would be a huge gain in performance. There are others you wouldn’t want to change, especially if the performances are already good.
[B[u]]"Asafa ‘sits’ a little bit as he runs in top flight. But that is characteristic to him. He manages to get all the benefits of triple extension without actually doing it which means he’s able to turn his feet over, his frequency will benefit. [/u]The person who has to fully extend to get the benefit that Asafa gets is obviously at a disadvantage.
"There are times, during most of last season for example, when he was overdoing it (pressing his stride frequency) . Between April last year (2007) and August he was overdoing it. In fact that was one of the big differences between what you saw up to Osaka and then after it (in Rieti and Brussels).
"I think what happened is he began to understand.”[/b]